Life's Like That

A relative’s family came to wish us Diwali last night. They were three of them- father, mother and their eight year old boy. The lady and her husband greeted us and we greeted them back. However, the boy was quiet. He was trying to hide behind her mother all the time. She said to him, ‘Aarav say Namaste to everyone.’ To this he looked at us shyly and went closer to his mother, who by the time had started feeling embarrassed. I went to the boy and took his hand in my hands and sai d, ‘hello.’ He said hello in a very low voice. His mother looked surly and scolded him, ‘beta aunty ko hello karo, kya ladkiyo ki tarah sharma rahe ho?’ (say hello to aunty, don't be shy like a girl). It is very normal for kids to be shy. Nonetheless, it was her comment that had taken me aback. Here was a well educated working woman who was putting this nonsense in her child’s mind that it is okay to behave this way if you are a girl, but not if you are a boy. Every now and then we hear such discrimi...

Me and my two year old went for an evening walk today. We live in the city outskirts and the houses are sparse here. The road is mostly empty with occasional scooters or cars passing by. It was quarter past five, and we were leisurely walking- watching birds, clouds, eucalyptus and guava trees drenched in the last rays of the evening sun. Weather was pleasant and the occasional chirping of birds made the silence even more beautiful. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere a big dog came howling towards us, he had a loose chain tied on his neck and had shining brown hair. He was by all means a well fed and giant dog. I panicked and took my baby in my arms and stood still there on the road. There was not a single soul to be seen nearby who could have come for our rescue. The dog came near me and started to smell my toes, and then started moving around me. He was wagging his tail. Though I knew these were friendly gestures, I was too scared to move. I was thinking about what to do when I...

If you are going to visit a new place, this post is for you: We recently went to Egypt and everything including the hotels and the tour guide was pre-booked. On day one the guide took us to the pyramids and bought us our tickets. We took them and went inside the pyramids. When we came outside the guide was waiting for us and asked if we wanted a horse cart ride. We agreed to it and the horse cart took us around the pyramids. It was a 20 minute ride and when we reached back a man was waiting for us with a broad smile on his face. He was the owner of that horse cart and demanded a huge sum of money from us. We did not know that there was a separate charge for this ride. We thought this must be included in the tour plan we had opted for. Nonetheless, we had to pay the money. The guide feigned ignorance when later we told him about this. Later that day this guide took us to a very expensive perfume shop. He told us that it was the best perfume shop in Cairo (the capital of Egypt)...